We came for dinner after a nice day at the park. First - be ready for some waiting time if you don't have a reservation. The service is pretty good (the waiters work very hard there, give them some credit) and the food itself was very good! The local cheese plate was huge, with delicious local cheese variety and fruit and dried fruit. The rib eyes were very good , local beer and wine in reasonable prices and do not miss the signature blackberry ice cream pie! read more

We were really looking forward to eating dinner here. My wife had the goat cheese cheesecake small dish and I had the pan fried trout. Overall, the entrees were 2.5 out of 5 stars. For desert we shared the house specialty blackberry ice cream pie which was 4 out of 5 stars. The view outside was great. Service was slow and terrible! It ruined the entire meal. To put icing on the cake, the waitress took over 20 minutes to bring back our credit card and bill and did not even leave us a pen to sign the slip. Luckily my wife had a pen in her purse or we would probably still be sitting there. We will not go back! read more

We always enjoy our meals here after a rigorous day of hiking. They do a very good job, and wisely focus on a menu that has consistently stood out as their specialty. And then the views up here make it even better. read more

The service was fine. The food was good. Two of my friends didn't want to eat a dish on their own so they ordered a dish and ask the server to split the dish into two portions. This restaurant wanted to charge $5 to split the dish into two portions. Seriously !!! read more

The view is great but doesn't make up for the lack in quality of the food versus the price you pay. Like another person said "the food is similar to cafeteria food". It is OK but not worth the price at all. The staff were friendly but the service was sub par. I won't be back. read more

The dining room has gone sharply downhill the last two years. Breakfast and then dinner on Saturday had the same problems. The restaurant had been out of major entree ingredients for days, and everything from eggs to fried shrimp were served cold. Wait staff were friendly, attentive, apologetic, and clearly more than a little frustrated with a problem kitchen. read more

Terrible experience. Staff was very rude and wait times were ridiculous. Seems understaffed too. Food was mediocre but definitely not worth suffering through the long wait, nasty service and dirty dining area. read more

First, let me start by saying that I don't usually write reviews. I don't like to. I work customer service, have a bachelor's degree in business management. I understand how reviews affect businesses and I also understand that sometimes places have off days. It happens! However, this is inexcusable.. especially given the number of reviews with people having nearly the same experience we did. Let me also say that we have been here before and loved it. However, that was 10 years ago. We thought we could try and recreate that experience on a date night a decade later. My understanding is that it has gone through changes in managements more than once since our first visit. I'll just go over the things that stood out.. and the signs I wish I would've paid more attention to... - Building could be nice, however.. the interior is very dated. Carpets were dirty and worn. Just unsightly in many ways. - The coffee bar in the main lobby area was not functional and the area was dirty, napkins all over the floor. - We waited over an hour for a seat. I wish I would've used that time to find another place to eat. Now I'm looking for the dining experience to redeem itself now that we're seated.. - Dining hall is very crowded, tables are just piled in there practically on top of each other. I could clearly hear everyone's conversations around me. - We were dining at nearly 8pm. The chandelier's should have been dimmed so we could enjoy the view outside of the lights in the valley. However, even that was occluded by the filthy windows that reflected back every bright light in the room and illuminated the smudges, smears and hand prints on the windows. It was painful to the eyes. - Our server brought out rolls. I thought that was a nice touch.. until I tried one. Old, dry and not warm. - Our appetizer was interesting and would've been great if it weren't made from pre-packaged frozen fries and plastic tub BBQ. - The salad that I ordered was fresh. However, it did not fit in the bowl and I lost over half of it on the table just trying to eat it. - We paid $18 EACH for burgers that were sub par. I think I could've gotten a better burger at McDonald's. - We both had diarrhea the following day. This is not healthy food. It is all processed, prepackaged crap. There clearly is no "chef" here. $71 for two burgers, an appetizer and two (cheap) glasses of wine. Ridiculous. This place needs a total do over. It's just not what it was. They could be utilizing this space so much better. There's great servers with pleasant attitudes. However, the servers seem overworked. I'm surprised that so many people actually go here when you consider how overpriced the food is for what you get. To be fair, I wouldn't mind paying the asking price or more if the food were better quality. Right now I'm feeling cheated and ripped off. Lesson learned. read more

Staff was very pleasant and courteous. The turkey dinner was so good it reminded me of a home cooked thanksgiving meal.

I had a pulled barbecue sandwich, which was ok, but not great and my wife said the same about her hamburger. If it's just ok, then why 4 stars? We both agree that the blackberry ice cream pie was delicious and the view out the window made it a very pleasant setting. read more

We arrived at dinner time during the Night Sky Festival and there was a long wait for the dining room, but were seated immediately in the Tap Room. Don, our waiter, was fantastic and gave us great recommendations. He was attentive from start to finish and we were able to order from the more extensive dining room menu. The She Crab soup was outstanding and the trout was very good. What a nice surprise. I'm sure the dining room would have been a nicer dining experience with the views, but we were in a hurry and we had a very nice meal. What a nice surprise to find such an interesting menu at a National Park restaurant. read more

Food is ok, pricey since u are a hostage of the resort. Hostess is rude as h*ll, wanted to look at a menu and she came unglued. She said we only have a limited number of menus and we're not allowed to give them out, go look at the one on the wall. If anyplace was closer we would go there. read more

People come to Skyline Drive for the spectacular views, not to visit this brightly lit cafeteria looking restaurant. And because so many people come, all the seats are filled up, no matter what, perhaps taking away any incentive to make it better. That said, staying at Skyland over a several day period, we did have some very good food (my chicken, my wife's pork chop), as well as some good, pleasant service. But, we also had some very poor food (e.g. cold potatoes under the pork chop, watery orange juice and terrible coffee) and some poor service. This could be a really nice place to eat, but it isn't. read more

The only fresh thing here was the waiter. The $14 angus burger was a frozen angus patty from walmart. There was no flavor and they didnt even try to disguise the fact that it was a frozen burger. The turkey pot pie was a disgrace to poor turkey who died to make it. The pie crust was burnt and greasy and the filling was bland. Not at all what i expected from a place like this. read more

Nice staff, but a bit clueless. The food was terrible. Uncooked green beans and bland chicken. Very expensive for food worse than the hot dog warmer at a gas station. read more

Great food, could do with more items on the menu. Great servers. Nothing to complain. Blackberry ice cream is a must.

Food was ok. The blackberry ice cream pie was interesting and worth trying out. Service could be improved though. Maybe it was just our particular server (it took a looong time for him to give us the menu and the check - strangely, he was hovering around while we were eating). read more

Much improved. After Aramark left it dropped but after going thru two chefs they finally got a good one. Just spent Thanksgiving there (2014) and the food was great. They did a complete 180. I highly recommend it. read more

Good experience here - very good meal, good service and reasonable prices for the setting. Gorgeous view with a beautiful sunset too. It was off season - may be different at peak, but we're going back tomorrow. read more

View was breathtaking, which was a good thing, because the food and service were abysmal. Sullen hostess, slow server. (He was very friendly, but super-slow . . . we got our drinks at the same time as our food after a 10+ minute wait). Wow, the food was bad. Surprisingly bad. Prettily presented, but bad. We arrived at the tail end of lunch service on a Saturday, and most of what we ordered had clearly been sitting under a heat lamp for far too long. Worst: ancient corn cakes. Hush puppies swimming in grease. Rubbery, dry polenta. Fast-food-esque fish and chips. Extremely overpriced for the quality. Beer and wine were good, though. read more

We spent two days at the cabins at Shenandoah National Park. They were lovely, the Skyland Dining Room was most definitely not. First off, the primary reason for eating at this type of place is location. The view was - or would have been - magnificent, had they pulled up the sheer blinds. I asked to pull them up and was told the evening sunshine would irritate others. Note that this was a cloudy evening with no direct sunshine. That was kind of a bummer as the view was WHY I wanted to eat there. Second, the food was almost inedible because it was salted so heavily that I could hardly taste anything but salt. Moreover, my dish was lukewarm when it arrived and I thought it was ridiculous to charge almost $20 for a hugely salted, cold dish of food. I have honestly NEVER had a meal that heavily salted. It's two days later and I still feel thirsty. I debated back and forth with my husband about just sending it back but in the end just decided to take the loss and just never ever go to the Skyland Dining Room again. If you must eat on site, get a burger from the Tap Room (which is what we did after paying for our inedible food). read more

I have wanted to go sit by the huge windows sipping coffee on a cool day looking out at the mountains for the longest time; so we got to go here finally on a lovely summer day; good enough! The entrance has a rustic feel, the hosts were ok. we were a party of three and got seated within 5 minutes (considering the lunch rush). So far so good..except the table was teeny tiny; maybe two people could sit and have small plates but for three it was a squeeze. I was feeling adventurous and ordered the fish 'n chips while the others stuck to salad and sandwiches. the salad was quite paltry, but the sandwich got great reviews (grilled chicken); i however got 2 small fish chips nestled on a plate of fries!..ummmm waaat? i was hungry and the waitress did not have the time to come check up on the food so well i ate. i still had hope for the desert: Shenandoah Blackberry cobbler and sundae..meh! will not go back. read more

The views are better than the food. We went during the busy dinner rush on a Saturday in September. Party of 2 and we were seated right away but were wedged in between two other tables so it felt like we were dining with them. It looked like the only tables with actual room were the ones closest to the windows and as the sun started to set I wished we had waited for a window table so we could better overlook the beautiful valley. I found the chairs to be very uncomfortable. The waiter was nice, brought us bread quickly and checked on us at least twice during our meal. We had an appetizer of spare rib which was extra fatty. We both ordered Caesar salad, Fried Chicken with smashed potatoes and vegetables. The salad was good, the fried chicken could have been a little crispier but it was not at all dried out and the potatoes and vegetables were okay. It was a little pricey but you are in the middle of a national park. The couple sitting right next to us complained that the menu had drastically changed over the years and that food is nowhere near as good as it used to be (We were less than a foot from their table so don't expect any sort of intimate dining or conversation). The wine selection features barely any local wines but several of the menu items boast being from local farmers. read more

You can throw out all reviews pre-2013 because the park gave the food service contract to someone new this year. They should think about dropping prices here and calling it family dining instead of anything 'fine dining'. Our dinner was awful. The food didn't come for over 30 minutes and that was after we asked what was up. We didn't get a bread dish until we asked. When we did get it, there was no butter. This bread was so dry it needed butter. The beer I ordered with dinner came after we finished eating. In the meantime, i walked to the bar and ordered another beer. While at the bar, i saw the bar area was no better as far as service goes. The bartender couldnt multi-task to save her life--and it wasn't like she was a rookie. She wouldn't let others help her. The beer was 3 bucks, no change from my 5. No big deal but a tip is usually something you give, not what a bartender takes. My wife's seared salmon dish was ok but for 25 dollars, extremely overpriced. Both our salads were wilted green leaves--just pathetically awful and embarrassing they served these. The salads also came at the same time as our main course. I didn't eat any of the salad is was so brutal. I ordered a basic cheese pizza. It was fine, but for 15 dollars, it was overpriced. The servers at this restaurant were veterans so it can't be blamed on them needing training at the beginning of the season. Seems like everone in the restaurant had a similar experience; the table next to us certainly had the same type of service. They told us last year the restaurant was wonderful. Bottom line, there's no other place to go so you're stuck with this place. It would be ok if it was about half the price. World class park, 3rd class restaurant. Note: breakfast the next morning was acceptable. It was a buffet for $13. Hard to screw that up, except for the eggs that appeared to come from a box. The fruit was excellent. Our waitress was nice--she was eager and young, unlike the old waitress the night before who just didn't care. read more